Cyrsti's Condo "Thought of the Day"

So Sad  but So true.                

Chelsea Manning's Legacy?

Every now and then something comes along to get me really stirred up about Chelsea Manning who is serving time for treason.  Along the way, I have had my doubts if I had been too harsh with my feelings.  When I read stories such as this one, I wasn't harsh enough.

 After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars training Landon Wilson to intercept communications, the U.S. military was capitalising on its investment in the young sailor, already regarded as a rising star in a critical, highly technical field. But shortly after 2 a.m. on Dec. 7, when a superior tapped him on the back and summoned him outside, one of the secrets that mattered most to Wilson began to unravel. "This Navy record says female, but this paper says male," the grim-faced sergeant major noted, displaying two sets of personnel records. "So, what are you?" After an awkward pause, Wilson, who joined the Navy as a woman but who has long felt like a man, provided the answer that set in motion the end of his military career: "I am male."

Of course U.S. transgender military personnel have one real right-the right to be fired if they are honest about being trans. The article itself comes from a site called World Americas and you can follow the link to read it but my point is, didn't Manning make everything even more difficult for trans military members currently serving? It's tough enough on all of us to be tossed into into the trash can by ignorant bigots but what a shame when one who says they are trans did what Manning did? Look, I'm not saying all transgender people are angels or don't do anything wrong but some are easier to overlook than others in the damage department. I was probably was of the more "nonmilitary" type persons you would have found, serving in the most ill conceived/ unpopular war in our country's history. (Vietnam) I served my time though and learned first hand how military personnel do need every honest break they can get when  in danger of harm.  Don't care if Manning is transgender or not. Do care what he did had and has the potential to put others in harms way-especially current transgender military personnel- who can be injured or instantaneously lose their jobs and careers if they are simply honest such as Landon Wilson was.

By the way, America's closest allies, including Canada, Britain and Australia, allow transgender service- so seamlessly. The Pentagon though seems content in marching on, secure in it's ignorance that trans members are security risks like Manning- an idea which is as backwards and untrue as restricting the ability of same sex couples to adopt. (Ohio) A topic for later here in Cyrsti's Condo

Frock Magazine Goes Mobile!

From Frock editor Katie Glover:

We have created a FREE App version of Frock Magazine specially for iPads and iPhones, Android tablets and smartphones and Kindles. You can download it to your phone or tablet from the App Store or from Google Play. Just search for Frock Magazine. We have also created a free issue of Frock Magazine which you can also download from within the app itself (see cover below). Go get yours now!

All the Colors of a Weekend Rainbow!

I believe this weekend, I got a little warm up to what I should experience at all the TGLBQ Pride events coming up around me in the next couple of months. Following a week which went quickly but was a "grinder" (for both my partner Liz and I)  we decided to check out a "mixer" of sorts for CrossPort   which is a Cincinnati, Ohio based transgender support group.  Although I am an atrociously poor "mixer" because I have been innately very shy through most of my life, I really wanted to step out of my comfort zone and hopefully meet other transgender women or men.
Did I? No I didn't, and here is my excuse.  First of all, I think there may have been a total of six or seven trans women who filtered through the gay venue we were at between eight and ten and then suddenly left.  Of the group I was only able to make solid eye contact with two or three-who abruptly turned away.  That's it and poof! the group vanished to who knows where and by the time Liz and I began to notice they were gone, we were having such a good time, we didn't notice. So yes I was a social failure yet again and if you read Cyrsti's Condo and you were at Shooter's Bar downtown, I wasn't being a bitch and not trying to say hi!

On the bright side, I did get a chance to wear my hand beaded transgender hair barrette (Liz made it) last night with the "Yin and Yang" center logo-as you see here on the back of my noggin.  If you want one made for you, let me know and I will pass on all the information on costs and timing you need to know! I plan on letting my trans pride flags fly at Pride!

So, other than the trans sisters I did see and I few others in the bar who we thought were transgender, the other colors of the rainbow were represented too.  Shooter's itself was unique to me because it was the first gay venue I had ever been in which went from country line dancing music to a drag show.  Liz and I have a little country in us, so the music was OK but then again maybe not for the other trans girls? Like I said, we became so immersed in the art form of removing jello shots from tiny plastic cups with our tongues, we didn't notice much else except- my favorite game, "spot the genetic woman."  After careful consideration, as the evening progressed (or regressed) we figured there was one other transgender lesbian couple in the bar. ( A trans/genetic couple like we are.)

Liz managed to trash me on the jello show dexterity contest and kept her "boy toy" jello shot person busy as the queens arrived to get ready for the drag show. When show time neared, the place began to thin out as several gay male "bears"  took off. and a few lesbians filtered in.

At the least last night,diversity was very diverse at Shooters.  As were the jello shots!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

What better way is there to start the week off than with our transgender feature cover, Apoena Ponthes!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature Sunday cover just proves what many of you have commented on here in the Condo, when you cross dress a very pretty androgynous boy as a girl, chances are the transformation produces a pretty- not so androgynous girl; such as Luiss San Murguia, a   Mtf  model:  

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

"Ker Plunk!"  Another edition of our Sunday edition has hit your computer!

Page 1.-Mom.   Mother's Day is  still a ways off, but I couldn't resist a couple references to my Mom because they fit so well!  The first came when I was thinking how fast the week went by.  My Mom, the noted philosopher, said at one time "life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer you come to the end, the faster it goes."  How could one forget knowledge such as that?  The other indirectly came from a recent post which referred to my lack of expertise in math- I sucked.  I was not alone it seemed as a received this response from Mandy Sherman:

If girls "aren't supposed to be good at math" and "boys are," then it's quite clear that I really am a girl in a boy's body. 'Cause without a calculator, my math ability sucks, and with a calculator it isn't a whole lot better.... Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to take home economics in school...it might have been the better choice! Mandy

As it turned out Mandy, my Mom was a Home Economics teacher at the high school I went to.  I too would have enjoyed "Home Ec" more than the college level math and science classes I was forced into except if Mom taught it.  I was in enough trouble already being in the same school as her.  Sadly the whole lack of freedom in high school was just another example of being pounded in a square hole as a round peg.

Page 2.- Coming Soon.  As Mom said, I'm getting close to the end of the TP roll this month and into May and time will fly. I'm sure how over the next month or so you will get tired of reading me whine about situations I put myself into.  The festivities start out the end of May when I present my workshop at the Trans Ohio Symposium and roll out my book "Stilettos on Thin Ice."  No pressure, right?  The next weekend is a huge party of sorts for my grand daughter.  Peeps are expected from all around the country and an occasion I have decided will be highly androgynous for me.  I had thought about coming as me but then thought it should be her day, with no distractions.  I will have to find an extra large loose shirt, tie my hair back and go for it. Finally, beginning the end of May and into the latter part of June, there are tons of Pride events in the cities around me which sound like great fun.

Page 3.- Cha-Cha Changes.  This morning I had a pleasant surprise when I put on a bra I haven't worn for awhile which is a real live "C" cup and I actually almost totally filled it out.  Truthfully, I hadn't paid much attention to development.  I either used my old breast forms or just went braless. Instead I was focused on improvements in my hip and butt areas.  My goal is this summer to do natural justice to a summer sun dress.  Standing in my way is weight loss and skin care.  I have very sensitive "sun burnable" skin.  To take the weight off, I like to work outside, which of course means plenty of suntan lotion.

Page 4.-Back Page.  This week there isn't one.  So simply, Y'all have a great week and as always, thanks so much for visiting Cyrsti's Condo!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our Saturday cover feature is the androgynous male model Mishel Mood:

Prom Daze

I wrote a post here in Cyrsti's Condo perhaps two years ago revisiting my prom experiences and got blitzed by a couple readers.  Their problems seemed to be wrapped around the fact I went to Prom at all and was sort of bragging about it. For them to even think that represents a real failure on my part of communicating my thoughts.  To you international visitors, "Prom" is a spring ritual rite of teen passage-often involving more angst, expense and even pain than anything else.  In other words it's a formal dance, dinner etc.

I went to my junior and senior proms.  Interestingly, it's held against me now, by some who want to attach some sort of former male privilege to going.  I thought just the opposite was true.  As the guy, I had to find a date, not be the one in the pretty dress, and finance most of the evening.  Some "privilege", right?  I know now of course, the view from the girls side of the fence wasn't quite that green either.  She had to wait to get asked, obsess over finding the right dress and hope the clumsy boy (me) didn't gouge her trying to pin the corsage on or ruin her new shoes stepping on them while we danced.  Oh yes, I experienced another male privilege when I got cornered by my senior date's Dad, and told what not to do with his daughter.

Sadly, at least in my generation, the whole affair was set up for failure and we never knew it.  The popular kids socialized and won Queen and King contests, while the rest of us struggled along just by being there, or not going at all.  Today there is hope as more and more schools are being forced to open up their prom events to transgender, gay or lesbian students.  As with so many other things, the younger generation is doing a better job than we did, which is wonderful!

Oh yes, there are two side notes to my senior prom.  One is tragic because years later my date committed suicide following her second divorce.  Among other things, she was worried about her declining looks -she was a beautiful 40 something woman when she did it. Maybe her Dad should have spent more time building her esteem and not harassing me (No grudge though!). The other is fun in that the supper club we had dinner in that night years later became a gay venue.  I couldn't wait to go there and use the same bathroom the girls used that night - and I did and didn't pee down my leg!

So there you go kids, I hope maybe this time I was able to do do a better job of communicating what prom meant to me.